DWM 337 – Living Legend

The world faces imminent destruction when Italy wins the World Cup! Can the fabled Time Lady Charleyostiantayshius save humanity from the dreaded Threllip Empire, or will her idiot assistant, the Doctor, ruin everything?

1 Comment

Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 9:24 PM

LIVING LEGEND

With thanks to Chad Moore.

The fourth and most recent Doctor Who Magazine free release in the Doctor Who range, Living Legend marks yet another foray into the lighthearted world of comedy for Big Finish. With Paul McGann and India Fisher on hand, BF turned to regular DWM comic writer Scott Gray for a short adventure, and his script fits the bill: it’s fun, it’s diverting, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Living Legend does some fun work with perspectives. First, the Doctor and Charley pose as formal Time Lords, with Charley acting as the leader and the Doctor playing the idiot subordinate. Playing up the noninterventionist stereotype allows the Doctor to “mess up” and reveal the “future” to Threllip lord Vengorr, while Charley stirs assistant Thom into a humiliated, angry rage. Realizing the actions of sports fans aren’t exactly sane, Gray portrays World Cup fever from an alien perspective: it is actually a horrible disease which causes insanity, which leads to several hilarious scenes between the Doctor and Vengorr — after all, the only cure is heavy consumption of alcohol. Sure, there’s nothing particularly brilliant or innovative going on here, but Gray provides enough laughs to keep the listener’s interest for 22 minutes.

It’s nice to hear Paul McGann in a play like this — here, much like in Invaders from Mars, the Doctor is thrown into a situation in which there is little to no danger, and as a result he just decides to have fun with it. It’s clear that McGann quite enjoys the role; he’s a joy to listen to and his enthusiasm is infectious. Similarly, without anything angsty or difficult over which to become irritatingly earnest, India Fisher’s Charley is delightful, using her wonderful chemistry with McGann to portray a TARDIS crew that is genuinely enjoying its adventures.

The supporting cast consists of two actors. Stephen Perring’s Vengorr is a near-complete idiot — something underscored by his comedy accent — but his mystification at the onset of World Cup Fever is hilarious and his drunkenness even more so. Conrad Westmaas, meanwhile, steals the show as Thom, whose righteous anger and sarcastic asides had me laughing throughout.

Simon Robinson handles the sound design, which is of a high quality, and what music there is suits the tone of the production. Gary Russell’s direction is as solid as ever — the cast clearly enjoyed recording this short script. It’s also nice hearing the Arnold theme, which helps to further unify BF’s eighth Doctor universe.

Overall, Living Legend is easily the best of the three DWM releases I’ve heard. It doesn’t attempt to be particularly serious, and it doesn’t attempt to make a satirical point — it merely seeks to entertain for just under half an hour and it succeeds in this endeavor. Fun stuff.